Sunday, May 8, 2016

Academic Freedom RIP

There is no longer
academic freedom in America or anywhere in the West. You have to toe the
propaganda line, tell the lies, or you are out.

Today the only reason
to go to a university is to be brainwashed, or if you are able to get in
Harvard, Princeton, Yale or Stanford, to join an insider network that will
advance your career as long as you serve the elite.

American academics will soon realize that their
jobs are in jeopardy, if they don’t know it already. Not only their jobs, but
their right to think, say, and write what they wish – and to engage in the
pursuit of truth, wherever it may lead them.

A battle of epic proportions is about to begin,
over the firing of Dr. James Tracy, for alleged infractions against Florida
Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton. Tracy contends that his First
Amendment right to free speech was abridged, along with his rights to due
process and academic freedom.[1]

Tracy was dismissed from his tenured position
as Associate Professor of Multimedia Journalism at FAU on January 6, 2016. On
April 25, he filed a civil rights suit against the university, including the
President, Provost, and other top officials, as well as members of the Board of
Trustees and representatives of the faculty union. His complaint calls for
reinstatement with back pay, compensatory and punitive damages, and a
declaration that FAU’s controversial “Conflict of Interest/Outside Activities”
policy is unconstitutional.[2]

Ostensibly terminated for not filing university
forms regarding his “outside activities,” Tracy was actually fired for research
and writing connected with his popular blog www.memoryholeblog.com, which he runs privately – and which includes the disclaimer that the
views expressed “do not reflect the opinions or positions of any institution or
entity…No information on this blog will be understood as official.”

The outcome of this lawsuit will affect all
areas of education in the USA – not only regarding tenured professors. If Tracy
does not prevail, constitutional rights will also be curtailed for non-tenured
regular and adjunct professors, who have no job security and are already
pressured to toe the line politically and academically. Not only will college
professors be affected but also teachers in state public schools, who are under
assault regarding tenure policies in California, New York, and elsewhere.[3]
Florida has already eliminated tenure for K-12 instructors.

The case for academic freedom

The idea of “academic freedom” is widely
embraced by American colleges and universities, which routinely assert that
freedom of inquiry and expression are essential for their effective operation.
The concept is outlined in the “1940 Statement of Principles on Academic
Freedom and Tenure,” by the American Association of University Professors
(AAUP), which is followed by most institutions of higher learning in the USA.
Amendments of 1970 further protect the rights of professors.[4]

According to the AAUP document, “Teachers are
entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results,
subject to the adequate performance of their other academic duties.” In terms
of “outside activities,” the document includes the following:

College and university teachers are citizens,
members of a learned profession, and officers of an educational institution.
When they speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional
censorship or discipline…they should at all times be accurate, should exercise
appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and
should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the
institution.

This was amended in 1970 so as to coordinate
with a 1964 AAUP “Committee A Statement on Extramural Utterances,” which states
as follows:

The controlling principle is that a faculty
member’s expression of opinion as a citizen cannot constitute grounds for
dismissal unless it clearly demonstrates the faculty member’s unfitness for his
or her position. Extramural utterances rarely bear upon the faculty member’s
fitness for the position.

These protections are embedded in policies on
academic freedom by the University of California,[5] the University of
Pennsylvania,[6] Harvard University,[7] and many other institutions. Such
policies do not guarantee that the rights of professors are always respected,
however, and the AAUP has carried out numerous investigations and censured
institutions for infringements.

…the need for faculty members to contribute
their expertise to public discourse and policy debates has increased. The
protection of their unfettered expression, including the ability to espouse
highly controversial and unpopular views, is an essential social responsibility
of universities and colleges…political restrictions on academic expression must
not be countenanced…

“Political intrusion” arising out of
controversies may come from inside the university community or from outside
interests:

It may also come from outside the university
when, for example, private corporations or public officials seek to persuade
universities to terminate particular research activities, programs, or the
services of the faculty members involved.[8]

Such outside intrusion precipitated the
termination of James Tracy. This took the form of a media blitz by the Florida Sun
Sentinel, a division of Tribune Publishing Co., which also owns the Los
Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Hartford
Courant. The Sun Sentinel published a letter of December
10, 2015, written by Lenny and Veronique Pozner, publicized as the only Jewish
family to have lost a child in the alleged Sandy Hook shooting. The letter,
“Sandy Hook Massacre 3rd Anniversary: Two Parents Target FAU Conspiracy
Theorist,” was reprinted in the Forward on December 14.[9]
This was followed by numerous articles and editorials in the Sun
Sentinel, such as “Tenure Be Damned, Professor James Tracy Embarrasses FAU”
and “Tenure: A Concept Whose Time Has Passed?”

The Pozners’ accusations were false, as has
been shown repeatedly, but nonetheless they were picked up by other media outlets
and used to bash Dr. Tracy in the US press.[10] The content of the letter is
not the issue here – it is the use of the corporate press to coerce the
university to fire a tenured professor who was exercising his right to free
speech as a citizen, in “extramural” work that he is entitled to pursue.

Outside influence has played a role in several
high profile academic cases, notably that of Norman Finkelstein, a brilliant
speaker and prolific writer known for his research on the Holocaust and support
of Palestinian rights. While Jewish himself, he has been labeled an
“anti-Semite” because of his criticism of Israel – and castigated for his
allegations of fraud and plagiarism in the writing of others. One of those
named was Alan Dershowitz, who tried, successfully, to get DePaul University to
deny Finkelstein tenure, even though his faculty colleagues had voted in his
favor.[11] DePaul insisted that outside pressure had played no role in the
decision. Finkelstein’s university career was destroyed, while Dershowitz was
given the Mortimer Zuckerman Award in 2014 for “promoting Israel’s … relentless
pursuit of peace” – an honor marred only slightly by an investigation of
Dershowitz over accusations of sexual misconduct with underage girls the
following year.[12]

Academic freedom at FAU

FAU also has a commitment to academic freedom,
as affirmed in official university documents. The Collective Bargaining
Agreement between the Board of Trustees and faculty union (UFF) states as
follows:

5.1 … The Board, the University, and the UFF
are committed to maintaining and encouraging full academic freedom. Academic
freedom and academic responsibility are twin guardians of the integrity of
institutions of higher learning. This integrity is essential to the
preservation of a free society and explains the willingness of society
historically to accept the concept of academic freedom and, in addition, to
protect it through the institution of academic tenure.

5.2 … The principal elements of academic
freedom include the freedom to:

(a) Present and discuss academic subjects,
frankly and forthrightly, without fear of censorship…

(b) Engage in scholarly and creative activity,
and to publish results in a manner consistent with professional obligations.

Tracy was officially reprimanded for
questioning a vague and restrictive policy on “Conflict of Interest/Outside
Activities,” which he was fully entitled to do (5.2, above). He had declined to
submit “outside activities” forms until the policy had been clarified, on the
advice of the union. As of 2015, the policy required the faculty to report “any
outside activity” (compensated or uncompensated) to the University. As all
academics know, outside independent research and its dissemination are not only
a right of faculty, but a requirement, affecting decisions on tenure and
promotion. Who among us could (or would) report all “outside activities”? This
policy was clearly devised as a rationale for Tracy’s termination.

FAU policy on academic freedom is also
enshrined in the Board of Trustees’ Board Operations Policies and Procedures:

The Florida Atlantic University Board of
Trustees supports the principle of academic freedom and is committed to the
search for new knowledge… [and] will defend the right of faculty and students
to pursue their academic goals free from constraints that hinder lawful
intellectual inquiry and discourse, and will protect the freedom of faculty to
teach and of students to learn from ideas that might be unpopular or not in the
mainstream of accepted thought.[14]

However they did not defend the right of James
Tracy to pursue his academic goals free from constraints – to the contrary,
they fired him. This is not the first time Tracy has been harassed by FAU at
the behest of the press. In 2013 he was reprimanded over his blog, whereupon he
removed any mention of FAU as his employer. This was occasioned by a letter written
by three of his colleagues, “Why James Tracy, FAU’s Conspiracy Theorist, Should
Resign,” published on April 29, 2013, in thePalm Beach Post.[15] This
constituted outside influence, from within the university community, also
condemned by the AAUP.

Open season on academics

Far from being protected, American academics
can now be thrown to the wolves, with unsubstantiated stories in the press
leading to a ruined reputation and loss of employment – with no concern for
academic freedom or due process. Tracy has been characterized as a “tenured
truther” and “cruel and possibly deranged” (Chronicle of Higher Education)
and a “conspiracy theorist” many times over (New York Times, New York Daily
News, et al.). He has been called “a virus,” “crazed,” “twisted,” and “a
never-ending embarrassment to the university and its community” (Sun
Sentinel), “kooky,” “nutty,” and “sicko” (New York Daily News), and
said to “spin tall tales out of nothing” (Palm Beach Post).In
addition he has received obscene cards and threatening e-mails.

Noah Feldman, a professor of Constitutional and
International Law at Harvard, called Tracy a “crank” and a “terrible person,”
in his recent article, “Free Speech for Bad People.”[16] While ostensibly on
the right side of the academic freedom debate, Feldman flogs the same old
“conspiracy theory” meme, as well as the false story promoted by the Pozners.
Still, he does recognize that a professor should not be fired for extramural
research and writing.

Actually, Tracy is a deeply intelligent
thinker, a sharp investigator, a talented writer – and an impeccably honest,
ethical person. None of this gets any airplay, however, with political forces
trying to silence him via the corporate media. This should bring out the
academics in force. So gear up, colleagues, and support James Tracy. Stand up
for your principles, and for your rights – or be prepared to lose them.

Vivian Lee is the nom de plume of a tenured
professor at an east coast university.

Notes

[1] “Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or
abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of
grievances.” Article I, U. S. Bill of Rights.http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html#text